Occupational Physical Activity in Young Adults and Stroke: Was It Due to My Job?

The association of physical activity and stroke among working young adults and vice versa has increasingly empathized in recent years. Lack of physical activity, along with many other modifiable risk factors, such as hypertension, obesity, atherosclerosis, and diabetes, contributes through vascular dysfunction to the development of adverse cerebrovascular events in the future and has always been a topic of interest in the fields of neurology and stroke rehabilitation. We wrote this review article to elaborate on this relationship in detail. This article suggests that the physical activity role in stroke development and the rehabilitation process has a diverse role, where individuals with low physically active occupations are prone to develop a stroke more readily in comparison with other workers who have a moderate amount of physical activity in their jobs; however, less mobility appeared to be harmful too soon after stroke. In addition, we elucidate the effects of physical activity on sympathetic activity and remodeling of vascular response. Alterations in the neuroendocrine system include several factors. This includes harmful changes caused by increasing levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine. These changes are seen with stress-induced cerebrovascular injury and are often elevated in post-stroke patients. In contrast, post-stroke patients engaged in physical activity may prevent these harmful neurotrophic factors by reducing the elevated levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine. However, we need more studies in the near future to further explore this association process. Therefore, we recommend more research to explore the relationship of occupation-related factors and adverse stroke outcomes.